PLEASE KEEP IT GENERAL/PG. NO GORE, SEX, VIOLENCE OR REAL NAMES. Instructions: Keep it clean. No real names. My advice is to stick with the plot diagram we discussed (short story elements handout). Activating Circumstance, Rising Action, Climax, Denouement. Consider starting with Setting (time, place). You may write as much as you want, but remember it may be subsequently edited for grammar, fluency and cohesiveness.
A completely legitimate story that proves running is a bad idea. The basketball court was deserted, the cold wind blowing against the frayed, tattered nets. The painted sidelines were peeling away, and the ground was dirty and uneven. Steven glanced towards the sky, and noticed there were heavy black clouds quickly churning towards him. He heard a rustle in the hedge parallel to the court. Steven looked just inside to see his best friend, Kate, come bursting out.
"Hey there" squeaked Steven, his smooth talk ruined by an awful voice crack. Kate smiled, but said nothing. Suddenly, a flash of lightning lit up the entire court. Steven and Kate turned around to see a quadruple rainbow circling a massive lemon pie, which was throwing zombies at them.
"Duck!" screamed Kate, as a monster landed right beside them. The grey arms of the zombie reached towards Steven, smothering his screams. Without warning, death metal began playing from the zombie's skittle covered fingertips.
Steven sat up in bed, and flipped his alarm off. That was one messed up dream he thought, as he simultaneously realized he had to run three kilometres in physical education, and that he had sacrificed his sleep to spend the night texting Kate. Steven pulled himself out of bed, and began his slow struggle to get ready for another boring day of school.
PE was first thing in the morning, so even under a thick sweater, it was freezing outside. Plus fact that Steven couldn't run for more than 10 minutes without falling down didn't help. Steven could hear the rapid footsteps of someone catching up to him. He turned his head, and noticed Kate running behind him. The thought of her propelled him forwards, encouraging him to keep running.
Steven could hear his heart beating as his warm breath cut through the harsh winter air. Steven was so busy trying to keep his pace, that he failed to notice a large stick in his path. His feet crashed hard against the log, and he fell to the ground. Steven felt pain blossoming from his hands and knees, but quickly jumped to his feet in the hopes of beating Kate to the finnish line for the first time. However, before he could start running, he heard a dry, choked groan from the ditch beside him. He instinctively took a step backwards and glanced down into the ditch. There was a rotting, slimy, grey arm sticking out, and what appeared to be a head was splashing around in the muddy water, its eye locked on Steven. Without thinking, he ran back towards the school. Suddenly, a sharp cry rang out through the air, and Steven recognized the voice as Kate's.
Steven ran back to the ditch faster than he had ever ran before. When he reached it, he saw that Kate was running in his direction at full speed, with a group of zombies wobbling after her.
"Quick!" Kate cried. "We need to get back to the school and warn everybody!" Kate grabbed Steven's arm and ran towards the school. Unexpectedly, Kate stumbled on the uneven ground and fell flat on her face; her arms swung into the air and threw Steven out five meters away. Steven struggled to his feet as he saw a hideous zombie grab Kate's arm and she let out a terrible shriek. Before the zombie took a bite off of her arm, Steven courageously flew upon her as he threw his fist at the zombie's head. The zombie's head flew out and landed beside a tree, moaning. Steven scooped Kate up and rapidly ran away before the army of zombies approached near them. After they finally reached the school, they realized that the school was empty. Steven and Kate called out their friends' names but only their echoes answered them.
"What do we do now?" Kate bursted into tears. Steven scratched his head and stomped his feet: he did not know what to do. Suddenly, a moaning sound float out of a nearby locker. Their blood ran cold. Steven was not sure if a zombie was in the locker or if it was ne of their classmates trying to protect themselves. He hoped for the latter he slowly moved his feet towards his locker. "Are you insane?" Kate whispered harshly, but Steven was already looking for something to knock the lock off. He noticed loose steel piping on the walls and yanked a four-foot piece off. He swiftly moved back to the locker and pounded on the lock. One, two, three. The lock clattered to the ground and Steven threw the door open and a huge figure fell out of the locker and knocked him down. Steven squirmed out from under the body and saw an ugly, but familiar face. The eyeballs must have been dug out, one eye was missing, and the other one was hanging from the eye socket rolling around glaring straight at him. He dropped the pipe but before he shrieked, something grabbed his leg: it was a hand. The fingers were rot and whitened, the pale white bones were clearly seen from the end of the arm.
"You wanna like, help me here?!" Steven yelled frantically at the stunned Kate, who somehow managed to find a nearby baseball bat lying around and slammed the zombie off of him. Steven breathed a sigh of relief as he got up from the floor.
"That was way to close." she said, kicking the dead zombie.
"Yeah no kidding. Was that zombie Darren?" asked Steven. Kate bent down, inspecting the still-twitching zombie.
"I think so." she replied "There goes Darren I guess." Steven shrugged.
"Care to show a little sympathy for the undead guy here?" Steven asked
"Well whatever, come on, take your damn pipe and let's go. We should find other survivors." Kate propped the baseball bat against her shoulder.
"I like this weapon. Heavy and blunt." She grinned, not unlike a psycho from a horror movie. "Alright, even though zombies are not scientifically possible, we'll just go and think of this as a zombie apocalypse situation." Steven took out a notebook and a pen.
"Lets see, from what I noticed in the Walking Dead show, zombies are always where you least expect them." He nodded wisely at his own comment.
"Out of 5 seasons, that's what you got? Ok listen, what we need to do is look for other survivors. This is a high school, so let's search the classrooms." Kate suggested. "Sure, I guess, but can we get a cookie first I'm really-" Before Steven could finish his sentence, another zombie leapt out at them from behind a door, screeching and spitting. "Remember what I said about "least expecting them?"
"Yeah." Kate said as she hit the zombie in the stomache with the butt of her bat.
Steven pushed Kate to start running, following close behind. All that running in PE is finally starting to become useful Steven thought. The zombie was faster than the others, but still quite slow. It only had one good arm, but its legs were still fully intact. Unfortunately, he didn't look like he was going to give up any time soon.
"Where do we go?!" Kate screamed, her lungs slowly running out of oxygen. Just as she said that, a wall bursted open. While the collapsed wall overwhelmed their creepy pursuer, a large piece of debris fell on Kate's leg. "Ah!!! My leg!” Kate yelled hopelessly. Exhausted, she couldn't push it away.
“Kate!” Steven cried desperately. His heart almost broke. He ran to Kate and tried to use all the strength he had to lift the debris.
“What are you doing?! Get out of here while you still have time! Just leave me Steven!”
"I can’t leave you here! I won’t! We are getting out of this mess, us, together! Gosh it’s so heavy I can’t lift it!”
Two rows of tears streamed down Kate’s cheek. “Why are you doing this for me? Why risk your life for mine? Go please I beg you.”
“I am doing this because…I…I…” Steven couldn't finish the sentence. He mumbled frustratedly, but was soon reminded of the real threat as he noticed the enormous amount of zombies crawling out of the opening.
"Kate, we have to go." Said Steven firmly, his eyes filled with horror as he watched the grotesque beings struggled toward them in a slow yet nerve-wracking pace.
“Steven, if and when I turn, please kill-"
"Stop being so pessimistic! I'm not planning to let you die!"
The group of zombies edged closer and closer. Both Kate and Steven knew that if Steven did not do something now, they would both die.
"Steven! Run now! It is now or never!" Kate cried. Unable to say anything back, Steven took his pipe and ran out of the school, towards the highway. As he ran, he could not put the thought of Kate out of his mind. As he turned back to see her, he wish he hadn't. The zombies had pulled Kate from under the debris and hacked away at her alive body. Steven tried to cover his ears. He tried to not hear Kate's screaming as she was being eaten alive.
"Oh no! Kate died because of my carelessness!" Steven blamed himself for Kate's death. He no longer had the energy to run due to the horrible incident that had happened, thinking of how to live the rest of his life without Kate. He mourned for Kate, and was angry at the fact that he wasn't able to tell Kate he loved her when she was still alive. Just as Steven was dealing with all the negative emotions, Steven tripped on a loose root. He fell down immediately, and blacked out.
When he woke, the zombie group was closer to him than he would have liked. He stood up and saw a large hoard of zombies, maybe 100-150 zombies infront of him. However, he lost all his strength at the moment he turned around, realizing that the first zombie he was going to fight with was not a voluminous and monstrous zombie, but Kate who had transformed into a zombie. "Should I let her live or die?" That was the first question that came up Steven's mind.
Steven knew that a zombie life is not what Kate would have wanted. She told him, when she was stuck under the debris, that she wanted him to kill her. Zombie Kate was 20 yards infront of the group of zombies and 10 yards in front of Steven. Steven did the most heroic move, and walked toward her. Surprisingly, the hoard only wached Steven as he approched Kate. With two yards inbetween them, Kate jumped at Steven. Reflexes caused Steven to lash out with his pipe and hit her in the ribs, knocking her to the ground. As she got back up, Steven knew what he had to do. And he didn't like it.
He quickly swung his pole at Kate's rotting legs, causing her to fall to the ground. With tears in his eyes, Steven smashed her legs to the ground and heard bones snap. Screaming in pain, Kate tried to get up but realized that her legs did not work. She stared at Steven and made his blood turn to ice. As tears fell down Steven's face he raised his pipe above his head.
"I love you Kate" he whispered as he brought the pipe down on her face.
Instructions: Keep it clean. No real names. My advice is to stick with the plot diagram we discussed (short story elements handout). Activating Circumstance, Rising Action, Climax, Denouement. Consider starting with Setting (time, place). You may write as much as you want, but remember it may be subsequently edited for grammar, fluency and cohesiveness.
A completely legitimate story that proves running is a bad idea. The basketball court was deserted, the cold wind blowing against the frayed, tattered nets. The painted sidelines were peeling away, and the ground was dirty and uneven. Steven glanced towards the sky, and noticed there were heavy black clouds quickly churning towards him. He heard a rustle in the hedge parallel to the court. Steven looked just inside to see his best friend, Kate, come bursting out.
"Hey there" squeaked Steven, his smooth talk ruined by an awful voice crack. Kate smiled, but said nothing. Suddenly, a flash of lightning lit up the entire court. Steven and Kate turned around to see a quadruple rainbow circling a massive lemon pie, which was throwing zombies at them.
"Duck!" screamed Kate, as a monster landed right beside them. The grey arms of the zombie reached towards Steven, smothering his screams. Without warning, death metal began playing from the zombie's skittle covered fingertips.
Steven sat up in bed, and flipped his alarm off. That was one messed up dream he thought, as he simultaneously realized he had to run three kilometres in physical education, and that he had sacrificed his sleep to spend the night texting Kate. Steven pulled himself out of bed, and began his slow struggle to get ready for another boring day of school.
PE was first thing in the morning, so even under a thick sweater, it was freezing outside. Plus fact that Steven couldn't run for more than 10 minutes without falling down didn't help. Steven could hear the rapid footsteps of someone catching up to him. He turned his head, and noticed Kate running behind him. The thought of her propelled him forwards, encouraging him to keep running.
Steven could hear his heart beating as his warm breath cut through the harsh winter air. Steven was so busy trying to keep his pace, that he failed to notice a large stick in his path. His feet crashed hard against the log, and he fell to the ground. Steven felt pain blossoming from his hands and knees, but quickly jumped to his feet in the hopes of beating Kate to the finnish line for the first time. However, before he could start running, he heard a dry, choked groan from the ditch beside him. He instinctively took a step backwards and glanced down into the ditch. There was a rotting, slimy, grey arm sticking out, and what appeared to be a head was splashing around in the muddy water, its eye locked on Steven. Without thinking, he ran back towards the school. Suddenly, a sharp cry rang out through the air, and Steven recognized the voice as Kate's.
Steven ran back to the ditch faster than he had ever ran before. When he reached it, he saw that Kate was running in his direction at full speed, with a group of zombies wobbling after her.
"Quick!" Kate cried. "We need to get back to the school and warn everybody!" Kate grabbed Steven's arm and ran towards the school. Unexpectedly, Kate stumbled on the uneven ground and fell flat on her face; her arms swung into the air and threw Steven out five meters away. Steven struggled to his feet as he saw a hideous zombie grab Kate's arm and she let out a terrible shriek. Before the zombie took a bite off of her arm, Steven courageously flew upon her as he threw his fist at the zombie's head. The zombie's head flew out and landed beside a tree, moaning. Steven scooped Kate up and rapidly ran away before the army of zombies approached near them. After they finally reached the school, they realized that the school was empty. Steven and Kate called out their friends' names but only their echoes answered them.
"What do we do now?" Kate bursted into tears. Steven scratched his head and stomped his feet: he did not know what to do. Suddenly, a moaning sound float out of a nearby locker. Their blood ran cold. Steven was not sure if a zombie was in the locker or if it was ne of their classmates trying to protect themselves. He hoped for the latter he slowly moved his feet towards his locker. "Are you insane?" Kate whispered harshly, but Steven was already looking for something to knock the lock off. He noticed loose steel piping on the walls and yanked a four-foot piece off. He swiftly moved back to the locker and pounded on the lock. One, two, three. The lock clattered to the ground and Steven threw the door open and a huge figure fell out of the locker and knocked him down. Steven squirmed out from under the body and saw an ugly, but familiar face. The eyeballs must have been dug out, one eye was missing, and the other one was hanging from the eye socket rolling around glaring straight at him. He dropped the pipe but before he shrieked, something grabbed his leg: it was a hand. The fingers were rot and whitened, the pale white bones were clearly seen from the end of the arm.
"You wanna like, help me here?!" Steven yelled frantically at the stunned Kate, who somehow managed to find a nearby baseball bat lying around and slammed the zombie off of him. Steven breathed a sigh of relief as he got up from the floor.
"That was way to close." she said, kicking the dead zombie.
"Yeah no kidding. Was that zombie Darren?" asked Steven. Kate bent down, inspecting the still-twitching zombie.
"I think so." she replied "There goes Darren I guess." Steven shrugged.
"Care to show a little sympathy for the undead guy here?" Steven asked
"Well whatever, come on, take your damn pipe and let's go. We should find other survivors." Kate propped the baseball bat against her shoulder.
"I like this weapon. Heavy and blunt." She grinned, not unlike a psycho from a horror movie. "Alright, even though zombies are not scientifically possible, we'll just go and think of this as a zombie apocalypse situation." Steven took out a notebook and a pen.
"Lets see, from what I noticed in the Walking Dead show, zombies are always where you least expect them." He nodded wisely at his own comment.
"Out of 5 seasons, that's what you got? Ok listen, what we need to do is look for other survivors. This is a high school, so let's search the classrooms." Kate suggested. "Sure, I guess, but can we get a cookie first I'm really-" Before Steven could finish his sentence, another zombie leapt out at them from behind a door, screeching and spitting. "Remember what I said about "least expecting them?"
"Yeah." Kate said as she hit the zombie in the stomache with the butt of her bat.
Steven pushed Kate to start running, following close behind. All that running in PE is finally starting to become useful Steven thought. The zombie was faster than the others, but still quite slow. It only had one good arm, but its legs were still fully intact. Unfortunately, he didn't look like he was going to give up any time soon.
"Where do we go?!" Kate screamed, her lungs slowly running out of oxygen. Just as she said that, a wall bursted open. While the collapsed wall overwhelmed their creepy pursuer, a large piece of debris fell on Kate's leg. "Ah!!! My leg!” Kate yelled hopelessly. Exhausted, she couldn't push it away.
“Kate!” Steven cried desperately. His heart almost broke. He ran to Kate and tried to use all the strength he had to lift the debris.
“What are you doing?! Get out of here while you still have time! Just leave me Steven!”
"I can’t leave you here! I won’t! We are getting out of this mess, us, together! Gosh it’s so heavy I can’t lift it!”
Two rows of tears streamed down Kate’s cheek. “Why are you doing this for me? Why risk your life for mine? Go please I beg you.”
“I am doing this because…I…I…” Steven couldn't finish the sentence. He mumbled frustratedly, but was soon reminded of the real threat as he noticed the enormous amount of zombies crawling out of the opening.
"Kate, we have to go." Said Steven firmly, his eyes filled with horror as he watched the grotesque beings struggled toward them in a slow yet nerve-wracking pace.
“Steven, if and when I turn, please kill-"
"Stop being so pessimistic! I'm not planning to let you die!"
The group of zombies edged closer and closer. Both Kate and Steven knew that if Steven did not do something now, they would both die.
"Steven! Run now! It is now or never!" Kate cried. Unable to say anything back, Steven took his pipe and ran out of the school, towards the highway. As he ran, he could not put the thought of Kate out of his mind. As he turned back to see her, he wish he hadn't. The zombies had pulled Kate from under the debris and hacked away at her alive body. Steven tried to cover his ears. He tried to not hear Kate's screaming as she was being eaten alive.
"Oh no! Kate died because of my carelessness!" Steven blamed himself for Kate's death. He no longer had the energy to run due to the horrible incident that had happened, thinking of how to live the rest of his life without Kate. He mourned for Kate, and was angry at the fact that he wasn't able to tell Kate he loved her when she was still alive. Just as Steven was dealing with all the negative emotions, Steven tripped on a loose root. He fell down immediately, and blacked out.
When he woke, the zombie group was closer to him than he would have liked. He stood up and saw a large hoard of zombies, maybe 100-150 zombies infront of him. However, he lost all his strength at the moment he turned around, realizing that the first zombie he was going to fight with was not a voluminous and monstrous zombie, but Kate who had transformed into a zombie. "Should I let her live or die?" That was the first question that came up Steven's mind.
Steven knew that a zombie life is not what Kate would have wanted. She told him, when she was stuck under the debris, that she wanted him to kill her. Zombie Kate was 20 yards infront of the group of zombies and 10 yards in front of Steven. Steven did the most heroic move, and walked toward her. Surprisingly, the hoard only wached Steven as he approched Kate. With two yards inbetween them, Kate jumped at Steven. Reflexes caused Steven to lash out with his pipe and hit her in the ribs, knocking her to the ground. As she got back up, Steven knew what he had to do. And he didn't like it.
He quickly swung his pole at Kate's rotting legs, causing her to fall to the ground. With tears in his eyes, Steven smashed her legs to the ground and heard bones snap. Screaming in pain, Kate tried to get up but realized that her legs did not work. She stared at Steven and made his blood turn to ice. As tears fell down Steven's face he raised his pipe above his head.
"I love you Kate" he whispered as he brought the pipe down on her face.